Shane Flanagan could be back in charge of Cronulla for the finals in September after deciding against appealing against his one-year suspension.

Flanagan was handed a breach notice by the code's chief Dave Smith last December with the Sharks fined $1 million and former strength and conditioning coach Trent Elkin's registration cancelled for two years.

The NRL have confirmed Cronulla has also accepted the fine, $400,000 of which is suspended subject to the club satisfying governance changes and compliance with the code's rules.

All of the penalties related to the club's supplements program during the 2011 season when the squad was allegedly exposed to an 11-week regimen of injections, creams and tablets.

That regimen was being investigated by Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA), who have completed their investigations with a verdict still pending.

Smith said in December when initially handing down the sanctions the club, Flanagan and Elkin had failed the players in regards to safeguarding their health and welfare, adding that they were exposed to significant potential risk.

The three parties' separate submissions to the NRL claiming their innocence were rejected by Smith and chief operating officer Jim Doyle last Wednesday, and Flanagan had said he would take his fight against the ban to the Supreme Court if he had to.

The only thing I want everyone to understand out of all this is that I am no drug cheat.

Shane Flanagan

But just over a week later he has accepted the punishment and ready to follow the steps outlined by the NRL that could see his ban reduced to nine months.

Flanagan was found by the NRL to have no input into the supplement program introduced to the club by sports scientist Stephen Dank and he said he was relieved to have been exonerated, but still upset by the decision.

"To me, that's the important exoneration," he said in a statement issued by his legal team via the club.

"The adverse findings concerning me were only about the club's governance in 2011 when, as Mr Smith also accepted, the Sharks were under-resourced and without a chief executive.

"I am bitterly disappointed that submissions made in response to the interim suspension were not accepted.

"The only thing I want everyone to understand out of all this is that I am no drug cheat."